The Man And The Checkered Ball

Chapter 3

3 weeks later the men were more or less a part of the tribe and they helped with all of the things that we had to do. They were very nice men and I got to know them pretty well. We were all starting to enjoy the company of the men and their warthog 'Jimbo'. The entire tribe loved hearing the strange stories of the outside world at dinner time around the fire and I especially liked the stories about the sea. Chris promised me he would take me there one day.

One night a couple of days later it started raining but it didn't stop raining even the next morning, and the morning after that. It ended up raining for six days straight and by the end of it; all of our huts were flooded with water. All of the people in our village had lost all their possessions and had no home. Chris announced to us that it was a 'monsoon' that had passed over us; rain never came to the village let alone a monsoon. I was scared. The clean-up took a long time and we had to rebuild all of the huts. But one good thing did come out of the monsoon. One afternoon Chris left the campfire we were sitting around to go back into his new hut, and brought back a round object that was black and white. Then he announced to all of us "let's forget about what has happened and have some fun. I'm going to teach you all how to play soccer" Well Chris said it in his language and David repeated it in ours. So the next day everyone got up early so Chris could teach us the so-called game of soccer. He split us up into teams and explained that the aim of the game was to score as many goals as possible and let us play. Soon everyone was running around and cheering and shouting and whooping. It was probably the most fun I have ever had. By lunchtime it was too hot to play anymore and we were all covered in mud from the rain, so we called it a day with a score of 5-3 (my team won of course, and I even scored one of the goals!)

We would play almost every day for the next week and everyone was getting quite good at it, all of the Pa's were good at defending the goals and the kids were good at running fast around them to score. I couldn't believe that we were actually all playing this game and I was so happy that Chris had taught it to us. But sadly the next day Chris, David and Jimbo had to go back home because they had got what they had come for. It was terrible to have to say goodbye to them and I was really enjoying having them around. They told us that they would never forget us and the time that they spent here. So as the sun started to set into the land for the night, the two men and the warthog walked away from our village forever.